The Recreation Department is located at 150 Emmons Street. The Recreation Department offers Franklin and Medway residents a variety of programs and events for youths and adults as well as coordination of youth sports organizations field use and field maintenance. The department operates and schedules
activities for Chilson Beach at Beaver Pond, Fletcher Field, Dennis Pisani Field (formally Theron Metcalf), Henry “Ski” Faenza Tot Lot (Nason Street Tot Lot), King Street Memorial Field, Dacey Community Field, and Meadowlark Lane Athletic Fields. The department is also responsible for scheduling the use of all school fields during the summer, when school is not in session. Our department works closely with Athletic Director Brad Sidwell to schedule all youth sports activities around the high school teams practices and games.
Chilson Beach
This year, Chilson Beach was a busy place with over 3500 visitors utilizing the many functions of the pond. Canoeing, kayaking, swimming, fishing, and hiking were some of the activities available at Chilson Beach. We expanded the usage of the facility to include a Movie night at the pond, soccer, football, boys lacrosse and cross country running. The turf field was used for NFL Flag football, Pop Warner football, soccer, and lacrosse, as well as yoga for senior citizens, tai chi, boot camp, and many other recreational activities. A portable recycled plastic walkway was installed for handicap accessibility to the water and playground area. The Franklin High School soccer and lacrosse programs play all of their home games on the turf field as well.
Summer Playground Program
An eight week playground program was held at Fletcher Field & Medway’s Choate Park from June 26-August 17 2011. The program hours were Monday-Friday from 8:30 am to 3:30 pm daily. Activities included: organized games, arts and crafts, water activities, sports, and weekly visitors. The themed weeks featured water slide Tuesday, a trip to Regal Cinema on Wednesdays, a giant slip and slide every Thursday, and Pizza day Fridays. The program had 500 registrants throughout the summer.
The Franklin Summer playground Program Director this year was Kaitlyn Williamson. The Franklin Summer Playground Program staff included: Elizabeth Allie, Stefan Herlitz, Paul O’Donahue.
The Medway Summer Playground Program Directors were Becky Tingley and Cory Gates. Their staff included, Arianna Burke, Bryany Burke, and Matthew Harrington.
Youth Basketball Program
The Youth Basketball program continues to grow and now involves over 1,510 children, 162 teams, 314 coaches, and utilizes every school gymnasium in town. The Recreation department expanded its basketball program to include High School aged kids looking to continue playing. This intramural program gives kids in grades 9-12 a chance to continue playing pick up basketball on Saturday nights. The program utilizes school gyms at Parmenter, Davis Thayer, Horace Mann Middle School, Remington Elementary, J.F. Kennedy School, Keller Sullivan Middle School, and Franklin High School auxiliary gym.
This year the youth basketball program ran from November 11th-March 3rd on Saturdays. The FYBL is divided into ten divisions: Kindergarten (co-ed), 1st & 2nd Grade Boys, 1st & 2nd Grade Girls, 3rd & 4th Grade Boys, 3rd & 4th Grade Girls, 5th & 6th Grade Boys and 5th & 6th Grade Girls, 7th & 8th Grade Boys, 7th & 8th Grade Girls and High School Intramural division.
This year, our coordinators were Steve Ellin 3rd & 4th Boys, Mike Vinson 3rd & 4th Girls, Mike Canesi & John Jette 5th & 6th Girls, Tim Saunders & Kevin O’Connell 5th & 6th Boys, Mark Marinelli 7th & 8th Girls, Steve Skaza 7th & 8th Boys, and Mike Vinson High School Intramural League. It is because of these individuals and the volunteer coaches, that this program is a success. The K-4th grade leagues are set up as a non-competitive learning experience for the children with the focus on fundamental basketball skills. Grades 5th-8th grade basketball leagues start to teach the kids different rules, zone defense, pressing, and traits of competitive basketball. Ten players are drafted to each team and games are played weekly on Saturdays. Participation trophies are awarded to all Kindergarten through 4th grade players, and a “break-up” pizza party is held for all K-2nd grade players after the final game of the season.
Pee Wee Baseball
The Pee Wee Baseball program was created in 1999 by Director, Ryan Jette. Since then, the program has grown from 26 kids to 300 kids annually. Taking his lifelong baseball coaching experience coupled with past employment with Major League Baseball International, Ryan created a beginners baseball program that teaches kids the proper techniques of hitting, fielding, base running and throwing. This fun league features 4 practice sessions and 8 controlled games. The use of tees, soft bats and spongy balls make this program a safe and enjoyable start children ages 4-6 years old.
Head Instructors Mike Massuer and Chris Reagan will be on site to run the drills, organize the scrimmages, and support the volunteer coaching staff.
Kid Care Babysitting
The Recreation Department continues to offer this 6-hour training program for kids ages 11-16 years old. Kelley Brooks teaches kids the business of babysitting while coordinating lectures on childcare, fire and police safety, nutrition, and diapering. Classes were offered monthly throughout the year and over 300 kids
were introduced to the business of babysitting.
NFL Flag Football
The Recreation Department teamed up with the NFL to bring this non-contact flag football league to kids aged 6-14 years old. 477 kids signed up to play each Tuesday & Thursday evening at the Beaver Pond Turf Field. Reversible NFL game jerseys, playbooks, wristbands, belt/flag setup and access to the NFL Kids website gives kids the opportunity to follow their favorite player or team. Players learned the fundamentals of throwing, catching, running and teamwork. Punt, pass, and kick competition will allow kids to showcase their skills in a competition against area youths.
Tennis Program
The Tennis program was expanded from a summer program to a three season (summer, fall and winter) program. The youth tennis instructional program was offered at the Franklin High School Courts. The six-week program was under the supervision of Diane Reinertson, Drew Reinertson and Tighe Poirier. Classes were run at the Franklin High School tennis courts, Monday through Thursday for all skill levels. Over 300 children participated in our tennis program.
Golf Lessons
The Recreation Department expanded the golf lessons offered into the summer months, by offering a full or half day camp in the summer. The Recreation Department, in conjunction with Golf Professional, Mark Copithorne, offered Adult and Junior Golf instruction at the New England Country Club in South Bellingham. The lessons covered all aspects of the game of golf (putting, chipping, bunkers, irons, and woods). Registrants met one day a week for 6 weeks to practice their skills. Lessons were offered during the summer and fall season for over 340 residents attending. Express 2 day lessons were offered over April Vacation. Participants enjoyed playing the course following the sixweek lesson to see what they learned.
Girls Lacrosse
The Recreation Department has been running the Girls lacrosse program since 2005. The program has grown from 28 girls to over 260 girls. Our teams participate in the Massachusetts Bay Girls Lacrosse League.There were four teams at the 1st-2nd grade division which was coached by Ryan Jette, Barry Reagan, Heather MacCallum and Mark Goguen. There were three teams at the 3rd & 4th Grade division, which were coached by Ted Mazukina, Charlie Clark and Elizabeth Allen. There were three teams at the 5th & 6th Grade level, which was coached by Hank Versprille & Lindsey Baryluk, John Jette, and Todd & Heather MacCallum. And three teams at the 7th & 8th Grade level, which were coached by Mike Adiletto, Rick Grover and Roger Jette. All levels had successful seasons and played in 8 regular season games. Franklin Girls Lacrosse is the largest girls lacrosse program in the state of Massachusetts.
What’s New in FY 2012
We introduced several new programs this fiscal year. They include;
Intro to Pee Wee Baseball- Utilize practice time indoors during the cold winter to introduce your child to baseball. This program is designed to be an introductory program for kids who are not old enough for Pee Wee baseball this year. The program will still cover, fielding ground balls, running bases, hitting, and pitching but in a smaller group. Get your child excited about playing baseball. This program includes timed skill stations, tee work, and mini games.
Free Play Friday- This class is for parents looking for some fun activities for their 1.5 to 4 year old on Friday’s during the winter? Free play Friday’s is a play-based class that will allow your child to explore different obstacle courses each week. There will be kid’s music.
Bully Proofing-This program is designed to be preventative and proactive, so that children can avoid being bullied, and if they are bullied, how to stop it. In an interactive, non-threatening manner, children learn how to become “Bully Proofed”. We’ll focus on identifying bullying, understanding why it occurs, acting on bullying, and cyber bullying and prevention.
Community Garden- With the guidance of Amy Acevedo, the Recreation Department helped administer the first ever Community Garden at King Street Memorial Field. Over 40 beds were constructed by volunteers and help from DPW made this important project a huge success. Providing vegetables to the local food pantry and satisfying home owners that didn’t have the space to plant their own garden, the Community Garden continues to thrive.
Home Alone Safety- Children will learn telephone and door answering techniques, internet safety, accident and fire protection and first aid techniques. We’ll also talk about how to manage your time when you’re home alone for short periods of time. The class includes a variety of teaching methods, including a video
and role playing.
Introduction to Robotics- Students will be instructed in robotic systems through a hand on program with working robots. Each participant will build and keep a working programmable robot that can be programmed to navigate around. Working in a team, students will construct a robot that can be programmed using a computer. Students will be introduced to a BASIC programming language that is used to control the robot. The robots will then compete in a mini sumo-wrestling tournament.
FUNdamental LEGO Engineering-Take a "crash course" in Demolition Derby, design a Mighty Metropolis, challenge the Battle Track, build and race a Locomotive faster than a speeding Worm Drive. Explore concepts in physics, mechanical engineering, structural engineering, and architecture while playing with
your favorite creations. Children will be given instruction, design challenges, and competitions appropriate to their facility with LEGO Technique and System components.
During February and April Vacation students engaged in a list of activities; rock-climbing, paintball, baseball clinics, field hockey, lacrosse, paintball, and much more.
Respectfully submitted,
Ryan Jette
Director of Recreation
Additional information on the Recreation Dept can be found on their Franklin webpage
http://franklinma.virtualtownhall.net/Pages/FranklinMA_Recreation/index
Published by the Town Clerk, this comes from the 2012 Annual Report
http://franklinma.virtualtownhall.net/Pages/FranklinMA_Clerk/annual/
